“It’s unfair.” That phrase (or a variation on it) seems to be the rallying cry of the Occupy Wall Street Movement. Those protesting in New York and around the nation decry what they see as the unfairness of life: the rich have more than they do, they can’t find jobs, they have debts they can’t pay, etc. This fixation on fairness, however, is one I just don’t get.

There are many things the OWS crowd is focused on. From what I’ve read and watched on TV, though, the theme of “fairness” pops up again and again. These people are rallying against a system that just doesn’t seem fair to them and they are upset.

In my view, fairness is a vastly overrated concept. I’m fine with it when it means equity, when you treat two similar things in a similar manner. If two children break a window, you don’t send one to his room and give the other a bowl of ice cream, for instance. But I dislike any use of the word “fair” to describe something that is simply unpleasant or unfortunate.

There’s nothing unfair about not being able to find a job. There’s nothing unfair about having high debts that you can’t pay. There’s nothing unfair about most rich people having more money than the rest of us. It may be unfortunate that you are unemployed. It certainly is a bad situation that I’d wish on no one. But how is it unfair? I would honestly like someone to explain this to me.

Some say the free market or capitalist system is unfair; it rewards some with great wealth while others struggle to pay their bills. This isn’t the result of some anonymous system, though, it’s the result of many small decisions made by millions of people. Those who are rich get that way, in general, because their skills are highly desired by consumers. These rich people contribute goods and services that other people want to buy. They are being rewarded because they make other people’s life better.

Those who are struggling, on the other hand, have skills that aren’t highly valued by consumers. As automation and competition from labor overseas has made low-skilled work less available in the U.S., it’s tougher for people who don’t have specialized skills to make a living. I come from an area where there used to be abundant jobs in the timber industry. My dad worked at a saw mill. He was skilled operating the green chain, but his sawmill shut down and he couldn’t find work because that task is automated in newer sawmills. That was very unfortunate for our family, but there was nothing unfair about it. The skill my dad acquired was no longer valuable to consumers.

What the OWS protestors don’t seem to realize is that life is difficult and there’s no one to blame for that. Sometimes we make bad choices and get an education to acquire skills for which there isn’t much demand. Other times we choose to live in an area where there aren’t people who want to pay us for our skills. Sometimes that means we have to find work that we don’t want to do or work that doesn’t fulfill us.

Speaking anecdotally, it seems the older generation understood this better than we do. My father-in-law has little patience with people who don’t do certain work because they don’t like it. As he told my wife when she was younger and complaining about a menial job, “what, you want a mariachi band to follow you around entertaining you all day?” His point was that work is something you do to make money to support your family. As he also says, “if you were supposed to enjoy work, they’d call it something else.” In his mind, and in my mind, too, you have certain obligations that you must meet. You don’t complain that something’s unfair; you just find a way to make it in this world.

Let me be clear – the OWS people have many legitimate complaints. I share their antipathy towards government bailouts for banks. I don’t like the connection between Big Business and Big Government. But fixating on fairness is where I part ways with them.